Maidened today.
Hooked a thermal on the second motor run.
Motor is over propped, but required altitude is reached with short motor runs so it doesn't get too toasty and has plenty of time to cool between runs.

First flight was successful. (Fast and stable and rolls like a drill bit.)
Damaged the nose (15mins to fix) on the second launch. ( Needs to be launched like a funjet! )
I might shorten the nose a bit while I'm repairing the damage.

I smoked the Turnigy Typhoon 450H 2218H outrunner on my #2 boat so I replaced it with a Turningy 2836 3700kv Heli outrunner. Running on 3S it's a screamer and makes the hornet fly. ( Literally on a couple of occasions!! )

It's over propped and over fed so it's getting pretty toasty. ( I've only been doing one or two full throttle passes then bringing it in and running it unloaded to cool down.)

I thought I'd try a "direct" cooling approach. I wanted to keep the cooling water from spinning off back into the hull, so I put the outboard cover back on. ( It's also holding the 'spray' hose in place.) I've 'wiffled' the back, sides, top and bottom of the cover to let cool air in and hot air and water out.

I've got alloy legs coming for both my Hornets, so it's only a temporary solution until they arrive.

I let the magic smoke out of the stock motor on boat #1 so it was replaced with a Turnigy 2836 2350kv outrunner.
The stock motor on boat #2 never saw current and has been swapped out for a Turnigy Typhoon 450H 2218H outrunner.

I'm just playing with motors I had in my spares box, and they're more than likely operating outside their intended current ratings. It's all fun and games until the magic smoke comes out. ( Then it's still fun and games, but components need to be replaced.)

I'm intending on replacing both outboard legs with more 'substantial' items.
Then it's on to upgrading motors and ESCs...

Images

After hanging broken on the wall for many months, my tricopter has been resurrected.
I setup a new linkage system for the yaw mount, replaced the stripped servo and repaired the frame damaged caused by the crash that followed loss of yaw control.

3 packs hovering and retrimming in the workshop this morning. All good.

Tank is secured with 3mm bungee cord. (Foam between tank and fuse.)
Engine has had two tanks on my test bench, first tank as per OS manual.
Looking forward to a few gentle flights to sort things out before the stick banging begins.

Posterboard foam for the top and bottom wing steps to keep the weight down. (4mm coro for the wing and 'fuse', 2mm with bamboo inserts for the vertical stabilisers) Carbon arrow shaft along the leading edge.